Magdaleno

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

In the jungle the mighty jungle the Lion sleeps tonight. And let this long time social justice warrior rest.

Yes, Ted Kennedy was a warrior for the poor, the immigrants, the children, the women and the workers. And yes he was against the Iraq war. He was a warrior for peace and human rights. And I like so many others got to meet him and be awed by his compassion and his stirring oratory.

I know that some of you are worried about some unfinished items on this Warriors agenda. But knowing this warrior, he just might have planned it this way to test us.

Jeanne Berwick of Seattle reminded me once about the words of Archbishop Romero of El Salvador.

When Romero was probably speaking about his own passing he told his congregation that:

Some of us will prepare the fields for planting

Others will do the planting of the seeds

Yet others will do the watering and care for these plants

And others will have the task of harvesting the fruits of this labor

And it will be again others who will be nourished by this harvest

So we should not be worried if a goal was not reached by our cherished warrior and leader. We must take up the work and responsibility.

Yes we must do our part to see that justice prevails and that others are nourished by our harvest.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a. Health Care or Prisons
b. Partnership for Safety and Justice..major criminal victory
c. Obama needs to show his GIFT CERTIFICATE
d. Glenn Beck
e. Kim Dae Jung

Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons?

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF August 19, 2009

At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is “too expensive,” how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson? Mr. Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California ― for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks. As The Economist noted recently, he already had two offenses on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19), and so the “three strikes” law resulted in a life sentence. This is unjust, of course. But considering that California spends almost $49,000 annually per prison inmate, it’s also an extraordinary waste of money.

Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education. The United States is anomalous among industrialized countries in the high proportion of people we incarcerate; likewise, we stand out in the high proportion of people who have no medical care ― and partly as a result, our health care outcomes such as life expectancy and infant mortality are unusually poor. It’s time for a fundamental re-evaluation of the criminal justice system, as legislation sponsored by Senator Jim Webb has called for, so that we’re no longer squandering money that would be far better spent on education or health.

Consider a few facts: The United States incarcerates people at nearly five times the world average. Of those sentenced to state prisons, 82 percent were convicted of nonviolent crimes, according to one study.

California spends $216,000 annually on each inmate in the juvenile justice system. In contrast, it spends only $8,000 on each child attending the troubled Oakland public school system, according to the Urban Strategies Council.

For most of American history, we had incarceration rates similar to those in other countries. Then with the “war on drugs” and the focus on law and order in the 1970s, incarceration rates soared.

One in 10 black men ages 25 to 29 were imprisoned last year, partly because possession of crack cocaine (disproportionately used in black communities) draws sentences equivalent to having 100 times as much powder cocaine. Black men in the United States have a 32 percent chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives, according to the Sentencing Project. Look, there’s no doubt that many people in prison are cold-blooded monsters who deserve to be there.

But over all, in a time of limited resources, we’re overinvesting in prisons and underinvesting in schools. Indeed, education spending may reduce the need for incarceration. The evidence on this isn’t conclusive, but it’s noteworthy that graduates of the Perry Preschool program in Michigan, an intensive effort for disadvantaged children in the 1960s, were some 40 percent less likely to be arrested than those in a control group. Above all, it’s time for a rethink of our drug policy. The point is not to surrender to narcotics, but to learn from our approach to both tobacco and alcohol. Over time, we have developed public health strategies that have been quite successful in reducing the harm from smoking and drinking. If we want to try a public health approach to drugs, we could learn from Portugal. In 2001, it decriminalized the possession of all drugs for personal use. Ordinary drug users can still be required to participate in a treatment program, but they are no longer dispatched to jail.

Decriminalization has had no adverse effect on drug usage rates in Portugal,” notes a report this year from the Cato Institute. It notes that drug use appears to be lower in Portugal than in most other European countries, and that Portuguese public opinion is strongly behind this approach. A new United Nations study, World Drug Report 2009, commends the Portuguese experiment and urges countries to continue to pursue traffickers while largely avoiding imprisoning users.

Instead, it suggests that users, particularly addicts, should get treatment. Senator Webb has introduced legislation that would create a national commission to investigate criminal justice issues ― for such a commission may be the best way to depoliticize the issue and give feckless politicians the cover they need to institute changes. There are only two possibilities here,” Mr. Webb said in introducing his bill, noting that America imprisons so many more people than other countries. “Either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States, or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice.”

Major Criminal Justice Victory in Oregon
Oregon Takes a Smarter Approach to Public Safety

PARTNERSHIP FOR SAFETY AND JUSTICE.
Executive Director David Rodgers

Background: prison spending and the economic recession is forcing state governments across the country to reevaluate budgetary priorities. From a business perspective, the U.S. prison system is failing. Incarceration is the most expensive and least effective means of maintaining public safety.

Some states have looked at sentencing reform as a way to avoid decimating their state budgets. States able to move beyond tough on crime rhetoric and focus on prevention rather than punishment are doing a better job building true community safety. Oregon was on the verge of committing hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new prison while making hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to cutting community-based addiction treatment, mental health services, and a large part of the human service infrastructure.

This was a recipe for disaster from a public safety perspective and a poor use of tax dollars. Partnership for Safety and Justice helped Oregon policymakers make smarter decisions about public safety spending that ultimately saves money and lives. Achievements: Partnership for Safety and Justice was instrumental in getting the Oregon Legislature to pass an historic omnibus criminal justice reform bill in 2009 (HB 3508).

The package of reforms created roughly $50 million in savings from reduced need for prison beds while reinvesting in smarter public safety infrastructure. The bill prevented funding cuts to community-based drug and alcohol treatment, community corrections, drug courts, and helped protect the Oregon Domestic and Sexual Violence Services Fund (ODSVS). The ODSVS Fund is the only source of state funding for life saving community based victim service programs like DV shelters. The bill also includes a wide range of safe and sensible sentencing reforms that improves public safety, refocuses the system on rehabilitation, and saves significant money in the process.

Key Facts Oregon spends a greater percentage of its general fund budget on our prison system than any other state in the country. Oregon is one of only four states that spends more on prisons than it does on higher education. For every dollar invested in community-based drug treatment, Oregon receives $6 – $7 dollars of savings and benefits in return. can’t do everything, and prison reform won’t come near to fully financing health care reform. Still, would we rather use scarce resources to educate children and heal the sick, or to imprison people because they used drugs or stole a pair of socks?

President Obama needs to show his GIFT CERTIFICATE.

by Mark Silva

Now that retired Republican Rep. Tom DeLay has won some national television time with his pending engagement to dance on Dancing With the Stars (he “even took disco lessons once”), he has a few things to say about things. Including President Barack Obama’s “gift certificate.” Er, make that birth certificate.

DeLay wants to see it. Talking like a “birther” on MSNBC today, DeLay also spoke of matters such as gun control — noting that he lost his own “carry permit” when he was indicted. And on FOX today, he spoke of the “bait-and-switch” health-care bill. “I would like the president to produce his birth certificate,” the former House Majority Leader told host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball. “I can. Most illegal aliens here in America can….Why can’t the president produce a birth certificate?” If you can get past Matthews’ exhaling laughter in the video above, you’ll hear the onetime power-broker from Texas say this “birther” question isn’t something that he is pressing: “I am not questioning,” DeLay says. “The Constitution of the United States specifically says you have to be a natural-born citizen.”
 “The Democrats “have spent 15 years trying to demonize me and putting me in jail,” DeLay says of the unending controversy over the Hawaiian-born American citizen-president’s birthplace, asking host Matthews:”Will you ask me the president to show me his gift certificate, I mean his – gift certificate – birth certificate.”

Advertisers deserting Fox News’ Glenn Beck Cable host calls Obama ‘racist’ and sponsors move to distance themselves

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — In what is shaping up to be one of the more effective boycott campaigns in years, advertisers are abandoning the “Glenn Beck” show on Fox News following the host’s incendiary comments that President Barack Obama is a “racist” and has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.”

Many groups have organized a boycott of this television pundit who is most popular with the right wing of America. Companies like Geico have pulled away as sponsors because of all the public pressure. Geico didn’t respond to a request for comment but sent Color of Change an email saying it had “instructed its ad-buying service to redistribute its inventory of rotational spots on [Fox] to their other network programs, exclusive of the Glenn Beck program.”

Privately held Sargento told its media buyer not to put any of its ads in Beck’s show, said a spokeswoman. “We market our products to people regardless of their political affiliations,” she said. “Yet we do not want to be associated with hateful speech used by either liberal or conservative television hosts.” Because of the way ad time is often bought on cable — in bulk and with an eye toward demographics and so-called day parts — some of the targeted companies’ ads may well have ended up on the program by mistake and in violation of their own standards.

If so, it was an error that some advertisers vowed not to repeat. “We place advertising on a variety of programming with the goal of reaching a broad range of insurance consumers who might be interested in our products,” said a spokeswoman for Progressive. “We also seek to avoid advertising on programming that our customers or potential customers may find extremely offensive.” 

The Glenn Beck show wasn’t “targeted,” she added, and “any advertising that may have appeared on the show was a result of an error.”

P&G didn’t respond to a request for comment, but one news report quoted a spokesperson as saying that “at times our ads are run by mistake on shows that they were not meant to” and that the company would “try to be more careful in the future.” Color of Change is using a 600,000-member electronic mailing list to urge people to sign a petition that is then forwarded to Beck’s sponsors. The group was founded in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster to promote “racial progress,” said James Rucker, its executive director, adding that this was the first time the group had been involved in an action of this kind. “We have seen rhetoric that is destructive and divisive before, but taking a platform that is supposed to be for news and analysis and using it to stoke racial animosity just crossed the line,” Rucker said.

The group also contacts advertisers directly but has yet to call on its members to boycott their products or bombard them with phone calls, Rucker said, instead giving companies the opportunity “to be responsible corporate citizens.” Rucker added that he “absolutely expects” other advertisers to follow suit and drop out because the wave of defections “raises the stakes for them to stick around.”

For its part, Fox News said through a spokeswoman that while some advertisers have “removed their spots from Beck,” they have just shifted to “other programs on the network, so there has been no revenue lost.

Kim Dae Jung

Recently in South Korea many groups have taken a moment to commerate of Kim and his lifes work. He passed away in 2003 Kim Dae Jung had a one point been a prisoner in South Korea and was tortured and at one point had a death sentence hanging over his head.

Amnesty International did a lot of work to get him released and I got to meet him shortly after his release. Years later he was able to get elected after his fourth try at the presidency. It was after his third campaign loss that I was able to meet up again with Kim. At that point I was the Western Regional Director of Amnesty International with my office being in Los Angeles.

I and Amnesty had done a lot of work on South Korea and the Los Angeles community wanted to give me an award one weekend in 1992 for this work. It was held in Immanuel Presbyterian church and it seems that I was the only non Korean person in the church. One of the leaders was reading out all the qualifications for those receiving the awards and then Kim Dae Jung was handing the awards to the recipients.

Kim had spoken earlier and I was surprised to see him there. I was in awe to be receiving this award from such a courageous person… I asked to say a few words of appreciation and in my comments I said the following BROTHER KIM DAE JUNG… I AM HAPPY TO RECEIVE THIS AWARD FROM YOU AND THE KOREAN COMMUNITY. … YOU WERE NOT CHOSEN BY THE VOTERS IN THIS LAST ELECTION… AND WHILE WE ALL WOULD HAVE LIKED TO SEE YOU BE ELECTED YOU ARE AND ALWAYS WILL BE OUR PRESIDENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS… AND YOU ARE MY PRESIDENT TODAY.. SO PRESIDENT KIM DAE JUNG I THANK YOU FOR THIS AWARD AND ALL THE WORK THAT IS BEING DONE BY THOSE IN THE CHURCH.

By now he was smiling. I had reminded him earlier that I had meet him years before through Amnesty International. Life gives you many opportunities to meet most interesting people and most of them are not public figures.

Cesar’s Last Fast – Great News and Update

The Director of the documentary Cesar’s Last Fast, Richard Ray Perez, recently sent this message to the members of Cesar’s Last Fast Facebook fan page.

Subject: Great News!!! “Cesar’s Last Fast” has been award a grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund. The award was announced Wednesday. It was a hugely competitive field. Our film was 1 of 15 selected for funding out of nearly 900 applicants. That means less than 2% of that applicant received awards. The award is a firm reminder that “Si Se Puede.”

Eating Lots of Raw Fruit

Hope it helps me live a little longer. And you should eat raw fruit and vegetables, too.

We all must try to eat better

My best,

Leno

Went to the doctors yesterday and made him laugh… it was towards the end of long day for this bone specialist.. and here I was another patient exposing their legs so he could check out my knee joints to see what my fall had done to them.

“What brings you here today?” he asked

“I just wanted to meet you,” I  deadpanned

Finally he smiled and later he laughed at some of my corny jokes. He gave me  prescriptions for an infection on one ankle, recommended some physical therapy on my knees and then thanked me for being a most different and charming patient.
Sometimes if you make people smile or laugh you can help them, and, in the process, help yourself.

Now, For My View Of The News

a.    The Screamers
b.    Sheryl and Bernie
c.    Senator Jim Webb
d.    NWFCO

What to do with the screamers at the town hall meetings:

He tore up a poster of Rosa Parks.

I was shocked at what happened when supporters of health care expansion–who were holding quietly posters of Rosa Parks–rolled up their posters when the right-wing anti health plan screamers targeted them.  A reporter asked to see one of the posters and one of the screamers, a white man, ripped up the poster of Rosa Parks as it was being shown to the reporter. The woman, who happened to be black, tried to collect the pieces. That’s when security arrived and escorted both the poster woman and the violent man out of the arena. They should have arrested this poster-ripper.

I wonder if this screamer would have grabbed the poster and torn it up if it was being held by a large black man or a Latino. I don’t think so. To me, Rosa Parks photo is a sacred icon and should be respected.

My suggested response for these Town Hall meetings:
I would suggest the remaining town halls be held deep in the center of black or Latino neighborhoods. I would organize every community organization and have their members there in mass to greet these bussed-in screamers. I am sure these screamers  would not be so comfortable.  Especially when the men and women of the community asked these screamers to go back to their homes.

Also anyone entering a venue should show identification to show that they were from that area, and that the first to be admitted should be the residents of the area.

And, I just might call out the gangs of the neighborhoods to patrol the arena or stadium. After all, it’s their hood and they should not tolerate these screamers.

So stop holding these events only in white areas. Come to the communities of color where we want–and need–a good health plan.

The saddest part of this process is that these poor screamers probably do not have health plans unless it is MEDICAID or MEDICARE. Which, by the way, are government-run medical aid plans. I’d be willing to bet a bunch of them have been denied medical procedures by private companies in the past but they won’t admit it.

We need to find way to raise our voices and be rational in our discourse.

We must be creative, persistent and consistent. and in the end we must forgive these poor folks who are being used and abused by rich lobbyist who will not help them and will soon forget them.

Sheryl Weinstein, “Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, And Me” Author, Claims Affair With Madoff

LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – A new book says that an investor who claims she was devastated by Bernard Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme had a two-decade affair with the disgraced financier.

The memoir, “Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me,” was written by Sheryl Weinstein, whose relationship with Madoff spanned more than 20 years while both were married, said John Murphy, a spokesman for publisher St. Martin’s Press.

It goes on sale Aug. 25.

Madoff, 71, is serving 150 years in prison for defrauding investors. Weinstein says she met him at a business meeting when she was chief financial officer for the charitable women’s organization Hadassah, where she had a role in investment decisions.

Madoff attorney Ira Sorkin said he hopes the author “was more discreet with her investment obligations than she has allegedly been with her sex life.”

Webb Secures Release of American Prisoner in Burma, Meets with Aung San Suu Kyi

U.S. Senator Jim Webb has finished up a two-day visit to Myanmar by obtaining the release of American prisoner John Yettaw and meeting with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Webb, who on Saturday became the first American leader ever to meet with Myanmar President Than Shwe, raised both issues during his meeting. He also requested that the country’s leadership release Suu Kyi from her eighteen month sentence of house arrest following her recent conviction for violating the terms of her house arrest.

“I am grateful to the Myanmar government for honoring these requests,” noted Webb. “It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future.

Northwest Federation of Community Organizations

This past Sunday I spoke at the closing plenary of the NWFCO summer conference that concentrated on the economy and what we must do to work for some justice for the poor in our communities. I understand that they had some great speakers on the economy and that it was great analysis.

Clear in this conference was that we are in a major fight for our lives and the most important battle in front of us is the issue of a good and expansive health plan that would include a PUBLIC OPTION. It is clear that we have a lot of work to do and that we cannot stop.

Now back to my Sunday morning talk. I don’t know what went off in my brain but there I was trying out my comedy routine about the right wing and why we must stand up and not be afraid.

I think many laughed at my antics and some probably thought I was crazy but entertaining. Then at the end of my talk I also asked them all to stand and dance to Bob Marley’s STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS.

This song has always been a favorite because it reminds you to STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS AND NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT.

So, I don’t know if my talk was effective but most must have been entertaining.

The New Ahora and Redesigned Website

Just to let you all know that the wonderful update and revision of my website and this newsletter is done by none other than Beverley Keefe at Magnolia Web Strategy.

She’s a private consultant who does works with non-profits to run online fundraising campaigns and communications campaign. Check out her work, and chat with her if you or your non-profit is looking to boost its online fundraising or communications.

My best
Leno

PS: Also remember to get your Alex Sanchez shirts or Leno’s Immigrant Rights Shirt. The place to get your t-shirts is PROGRESSIVE RAGS. It’s a great business run by a great community activist Jack Lieberman.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

In the weeks ahead we will argue the need to have a good health plan that will protect us all. In town halls, on e mails, twitter and on the streets, we will be agitating for change. The time is now for health care reform. It is long overdue in our country. We must be consistent and rational in our organizing.

And in the wings is the campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform that we all need and will work for during the fall session of congress.

Now, for my view of the news:

a. Sotomayoria
b. Unions threatened
c. Bill Clinton
d. Cash for Clunkers
e. Professional screamers.
f. Eunice Shriver

A new word for victory …SOTOMAYORIA…

We are all have been celebrating the confirmation and swearing in of the first Puerta Rican Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor… this comes after weeks of Sonia being sworn at by most republicans for being a WISE LATINA.

Larry Klienman of Oregon is making a creative suggestion that we call our congressional and legislative victories a Sotomayoria. Mayoria means the majority so when an IA is added to Sonia’s last name it gives a creative way of defining a good majority victory.

Larry says: It occurs to me that, from now on, every congressional or legislative victory that combines all (or almost all) Democrats and a few Republicans should be called a “sotomayoria” in honor of our new Supreme Court Justice.  When people ask us what we’re hoping for on CIR in Congress, we can simply say ”a sotomayoria”.

Unions Receive Increasingly Scary Threats Of Violence For Town Hall Participation

Union officials continued to receive a barrage of threats on Friday evening and into Saturday punctuated by warnings that if organizers were sent to counter-demonstrate at health care town halls they would be met with violence.

An official with the AFL-CIO, a federation of labor organizations, passed on what he described as a “pretty direct threat” to those union hands who were showing up to balance out anti-Obama demonstrations being waged at local Democratic forums.

“I will be going to a local town hall this weekend, all you union members BEWARE!” an emailer wrote at 9:40 Saturday morning. “We will be waiting for you. better make sure you have arrangements with your local ER. today is the day when the goon meets the gun. see you there.”

Bill Clinton in North Korea

Former President Clinton went to North Korea met with President Kim Jong Il and obtained the freedom of the two American Journalists Laura Ling, and Euna Lee. It was a great humanitarian act and is much appreciated by all except the extreme right wing republicans.

Cash for Clunkers: $4,500.00

It seems that my family tried to turn me into the Cash for Clunkers auto trade. Yep seems they were trying to trade in on a higher mileage Chicano… I resisted saying that I could shed a few pounds …get on the treadmill and that my mileage would get better .. plus I mentioned that I had experience.. so for the time being I am saved and will not be turned in.

Pleased By Success of Incoherent Screaming, Republicans Plan to Expand Use of Tactic

By Lewis Grossberger

With right-wing mobs throwing Democrats off balance this week by shouting them down at town hall meetings across the nation, Republican leaders say they will begin screaming incoherently in other venues.

“From now on, we’re going to hoot and holler in Congress, in the state legislatures, on TV and radio shows, and even in the streets,” said RNC Chairman Michael Steele. “EEEEEEEAAAAAAGH!,” he added, waving his arms in the air.

Groups of right-wingers have disrupted recent efforts by Democratic Congressmen to explain their policies, particularly health-care reform legislation, by booing, heckling, and speaking in tongues.

“This is working great for us,” said Steele. “It disguises the fact that we have no program of our own and that our people aren’t really very well informed on the issues.”

He said Republican strategists are also looking into the possibility of banging gongs and popping blown-up paper bags.

The Special Olympics Loses an Angel
Eunice Shriver Dies At 88.

Eunice–in memory of her sister who had mild retardation–became the organizer of the Special Olympics. As you all know she was part of the historic Kennedy family.

Today, children with disabilities can compete just like other Olympic athletes. And they and their family can be proud and cheer them on. In the Special Olympics everyone gets a medal.

Eunice’s husband Sargent Shriver was the first Director of the Peace Corps and I met him while I was still at the University of Colorado.

On August 8th, 1994, Eunice Shriver and Cesar E. Chavez received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton. I was there as Executive Director of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. The event was also attended by the Chavez Family, and my Assistant Abe Bonowitz.

At the reception I was able to thank Eunice for creating such a wonderful event for some of the most forgotten in our society. I was also reminded Sarge that I had met him in 1966 and that I had finally become a Peace Corps Country Director.

Eunice was a special spirit … and an angel amongst us.

I will miss her.

ADIOS HERMANA QUERIDA

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My best
Leno

PS: I’m looking for roommates as of 8-24-2009. Share a house in South Seattle with a busy Chicano. $550 Per Room – Am Willing To Negotiate Deals – CALL 206-618-9909 or email via the contact form.